


Stolen Away

by rosefox



Category: Original Work
Genre: Celebrations, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Kid Fic, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 08:29:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21223598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosefox/pseuds/rosefox





	Stolen Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BiffElderberry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiffElderberry/gifts).

When Ethel was three years old, the fairies came for her.

"I've been waiting," said Ethel's mother, Nora, when the first twig-creature climbed in the window.

"Beg pardon?" the twig-creature said, startled.

"I've been opening that window every night for a week," Nora said. "I put bread and milk on the stoop, I walked widdershins around the nursery chanting your secret names—"

Another twig-creature climbed in. The two fairies looked hungrily at Ethel, who was sleeping on Nora's lap. "Release her to us, then, if you want to be rid of her so badly," the first one said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nora said. "Try to take my child from me and I will _destroy you_. No, I want you to take us both."

The fairies exchanged glances. "You're a bit old," the second one said.

"I'm going to be a bit dead if I stay in this house much longer," Nora said steadily. "Or my husband will. Or maybe both of us. Whatever, I don't care, it doesn't matter what would happen if I stayed because I'm not staying. This world sucks. Take me to Faerie. Please."

Ethel shifted in Nora's lap and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Nora stroked her hair, but there was steel under the gentle gesture. The fairies looked at each other again, aware that anyone who knew enough to walk widdershins and chant their secret names probably could destroy them if she wanted to. And as long as she wasn't going to stop them from taking the child...

"All right," the first fairy said. "Close your eyes."

Nora wrapped her arms tightly around Ethel and closed her eyes.

* * *

When Ethel turned four—more or less, since time was weird in Faerie—she and Nora introduced the fairies to the concept of birthday parties. The centaurs got really into it, decorated an entire forest glade with flower garlands, and baked a cake. An oak dryad turned her leaves a festive orange and showered them down over the gathering like confetti. The selkies contributed pufferfish balloons. 

Nora had unofficially adopted several of the other changeling children, and they clustered around her eagerly as she cut into the cake. She wasn't really sure what the centaurs had put in it, but birthdays were junk food days, and all the fairies were careful not to poison the changelings. Once all the kids had cake (and Ethel had the biggest piece), she tried a bit herself. The frosting was purple and tasted unexpectedly of lemon. The cake itself was sort of undefinably sweet and chalky.

"What do you think?" asked Callerby, who was lurking nearby. The centaur always seemed to be nearby these days. Nora smiled at him, not quite flirtatious. He was handsome and friendly and quite normal by fairy standards, but Faerie was short on reliable babysitters, so it would be a while before she was ready to date.

"It's not bad," she said. "I like the frosting."

"Would you help me make another one?" Callerby asked. "I'm sure you can help it be better than not bad."

He really was very nice. "Sure," she said, "I'd like that."

The children frolicked around them, play-zapping one another with little bursts of magic. Nora sighed with contentment. As a child she'd always wanted to be a changeling. Now her dream had come true, late but not too late, and it was every bit as wonderful as she'd hoped.


End file.
